Unfinished paperwork leaves Eleta waiting for Bangladesh call-up

Bangladesh national football team head coach Jamie Day was unable to pick naturalised Bangladesh citizen Eleta Kingsley for the upcoming Kyrgyzstan tour as his paperwork is incomplete.

Eleta, a Nigeria-born footballer who recently got his Bangladesh Passport has been a familiar face in the Bangladesh football circuit for the last decade, could have been a solution to the scarcity of goals in the national team but Day could not pick him for the three friendly matches in Kyrgyzstan before the SAFF Championship.

“No clearance for him as the paperwork is not done,” Day told The Business Post.

Bangladesh Football Federation General Secretary Abu Nayem Shohag told TBP that Eleta’s paperworks are still being worked on with the Immigration authority and the Home Ministry.

“We are still working on his paperworks. We have not received all the required papers from the Immigration authority to send them to FIFA. Once we receive them, we will send them,” Shohag told TBP.

Eleta was also barred from playing for Basundhara Kings in the AFC cup.

However, He has called up two new Bangladesh-origin expatriate footballers in the squad who are; Nayeb Tahmid Islam and Rahbar Wahed Khan.

Rahbar played for a Canadian club North Toronto Nitros as a midfielder, and Jamie was impressed after seeing his video, and now, he wants to see him in reality.

“I would like to see how better he is from our local players. Technically he seems to be a good player who can distribute passes and can help the attackers by moving up,” Day told the media.

Tahmid plays for a lower division French club USSA Vertou.

Both the players are still waiting for their No-Objection Certificate from their clubs, Shohag informed.

“We have already asked the clubs of Tahmid and Rahbar for NOC. We haven’t received them yet but hopefully it will not take more than 2-4 days,” Shohag told TBP.

Nine footballers from Basundhara Kings, who are now in Maldives to take part in the AFC cup was picked for the national team. These footballers will straight go to Kyrgyzstan from Maldives, the rest of the team members will fly from Dhaka.

Bangladesh will play friendly matches against Palestine, Kyrgyzstan and Kyrgyzstan Olympic team.